$ 225m project seeks 250 workers Solar power jobs bonanza

THE construction of a $ 225 million solar farm is set to begin at Kelso with developers and lead contractors advertising for the first of up to 250 jobs being created by the project.

The 148MW Ross River Solar Farm is being built on a disused mango farm in a rural residential area near Ross Dam, about 20km southeast of Townsville’s CBD.

The project is being developed by solar farm proponent ESCO Pacific and infrastructure manager Palisade Investment Partners. Downer Utilities, part of the listed Downer Group, is lead construction contractor.

A spokeswoman for the developers said many people had expressed an interest in gaining the skills needed to work on this and other utility scale solar projects planned for North Queensland.

“They are seeing this as a new area and looking to get the skills they need,” the spokeswoman said.

Big national firms such as Downer, RCR and Nilsen have won the engineering, procurement and construction contracts for North Queensland projects so far.

While developers are saying it makes sense to maximise local employment, some skills might need to be brought in.

“It makes sense to be sourcing ( employment) locally. Where that is not able to be done, they will bring in expertise from elsewhere,” the spokeswoman said.

She expected construction to begin within the next month.

Downer this week advertised for a crane operator, pile driver operator, dogman, labourer and operator, while developers in its advertising said the jobs needed included sur- veyors, engineers, civil contractors, metal fabricators, electricians, fencing, security and telecommunications specialists, builders and general labourers.

A Kelso resident, who did not want to be identified, said one of the first tasks would be removing some 30,000 mango trees on the 200ha site.

“Somebody is going to be doing an awful lot of wood chipping,” the resident said.

The solar farm will provide up to 300,000 MW/ h of electricity every year – enough to power about 54,000 homes.

The solar farm will use about 417,000 solar panels, mounted on frames with screw pile foundations.

The frames will track the movement of the sun with panels feeding electricity into an on- site reticulation system via power condition units before dispatch via the Ross River Bulk Supply Substation.